UK Guide to Conveyancing Firms

From having an offer accepted to exchange of contracts can take up to eight weeks and from exchange of contracts to completion can take up to four weeks. However, if there are any problems the time taken may be longer.

Once you have instructed the solicitor or, in England and Wales, a conveyancer, the seller's solicitor or the licensed conveyancer draws up a contract which will eventually be signed by you and the seller. However, before the contract can be signed, your solicitor or licensed conveyancer must make sure that there are no problems with the ownership of the property, rights of way, access, or future developments in the area that might affect the property. This is called 'making enquiries and searches'. The solicitor or licensed conveyancer makes the enquiries and searches as follows:-

• local authority and Land Charge Register searches.
• enquiries made to the seller by the conveyancer
• from the Land Registry

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